Promoting local production and active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) industry in low and middle income countries (LMICs): impact on medicines access and policy.

The success of universal coverage depends on ensuring that patients have access to medicine. Encouraging local production of medicines in developing countries can provide better access to medicines. In addition to determining the quality of pharmaceutical goods, Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) also determine their cost. According to market forecasts, the active pharmaceutical ingredients market is expected to increase from USD 193.15 billion in 2023 to USD 285.29 billion by 2028. Pakistan largely depends on India and China for its Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient requirements. It was feared that a shortage of medicines would result from Pakistan's government suspending all trade with India on August 9, 2019. To improve health security in Pakistan, the Government of Pakistan has introduced an API promotion Policy in 2022. Financial and non-financial incentives have helped many countries develop their API industries like China, India, and Bangladesh. The current domestic API market of Pakistan is around 150 million $. After the introduction of the policy, the existing units are increasing their capacity while eight new API units are in the process of establishment. Through local production of APIs and intermediates, Pakistan can improve its health security by learning from the experiences of neighbouring countries, especially China.

Development and formulation of metformin (Antidiabetic) effervescent Granules: to increase patient compliance and its stability study.

Convenience of administration and patient compliance are gaining importance in the formulation of dosage forms. Many patients, like elderly people and person with dysphagia find difficulty to swallow the tablets and thus do not comply with prescriptions. So the present study was conducted to develop and formulate metformin effervescent granules. The stability study was carried out for 24 weeks (168 days) at temperatures of 4°C, Room temperature, 40°C & 60°C and at the end, the %age of drug remaining in the formulation was determined. The results showed that the formulation of metformin effervescent granules were remained best stable at 4°C in refrigerator, as the %age of drug remaining is not decreased more than 5% and the formulation stored at room temperature, was also found to be very close to the standard at the end of 24 weeks. It is concluded from the study that granules may be another dosage form to use as antidiabetic pharmaceutical product.